Farmers in The Forest : An Essay on Human Needs and Possibility of Indonesia Natural World Developmenet
Media Konservasi Vol. 13, No. 3 Desember 2008 : 1 – 3
FARMERS IN THE FOREST: AN ESSAY ON HUMAN NEEDS AND POSSIBILITY OF
INDONESIA NATURAL WORLD DEVELOPMENT
(Petani di Hutan: Sebuah Esai atas Kebutuhan Manusia dan Kemungkinan Pembangunan
Dunia Alam Indonesia)
ALI M.A. RACHMAN
Division of Plant Diversity Conservation, Department of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecotourism
Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Kampus Darmaga Bogor 16680, Indonesia
Diterima 23 Juni 2008/Disetujui 2 Oktober 2008
ABSTRAK
Rangkaian kata-kata kunci dalam artikel ini dimaksudkan untuk memberi pedoman bahwa ‘petani dalam hutan’ sebagai lambang rakyat kecil,
berpotensi besar dan arif. Mereka merupakan pionir hidup di dunia alami melalui suatu proses evolusi interaksi yang panjang terhadap ekologi dan
ekosistem. Kelompok masyarakat ini menimba ilmu sebagai hasil dari interaksi itu, sehngga tidak boleh diabaikan dalam konservasi dan pembangunan
Indonesia. Kebijakan konservasi dan pembangunan Indonesia hendaklah menggali kembali ilmu pengetahuan masyarakat kecil ini. Hasil galian itu dapat
dipadukan dengan temuan ilmu terkini. Tujuannya adalah mempercepat upaya evolusi guna memperoleh kesejahteraan ekonomi rakyat.
Kata kunci: evolusi, koevolusi, reformasi, ekologi, nilai.
INTRODUCTION
The term “farmers in the forest” in this paper is
basically refers to the natural world evolution where human
being occupies an ecosystem. It is interesting to notice, that
many writers make a note on farmers in the forest. One of
the earliest writing on such matter is Farmer in Thailand by
Pieter Kunstadter of East-West Centre, USA. This piece of
writing concerns about the prospects of human ecology
approach. Firstly, this approach can be used in search of
finding possible means to keep Indonesian forest intact.
This is done in order to understand the “folk economic”
background concept of what Indonesian government should
do and to discover the sustainability and welfare of the
whole national development today.
Secondly, folk economy needs to be clarified because
sometimes it is misinterpreted by macro economic
scientists. It is referred to the traditional way of life of
people who are involved in the process of cultural
evolution. In this view, “farmers in the forest” is indicated
by values of a community as a whole through an evolution.
Thirdly, in my opinion the value of knowledge lies in
the contemplation of that which is wonderful and beautiful.
Such contemplation extends our well-being. There is a
relationship between our capacity to appreciate the value of
the natural world and human well-being.
Cultural Core and Economic Change Problem
A farmer is one who possesses himself and his family
life based on the interaction with ecosystem. As a farmer,
he is involve with his family and he is also a member of a
community as a whole indicated by a specific culture which
is determined by cultural core formed from generation to
generation. This signifies that a farmer is one dynamic
person and interacts with his social system as well as
ecosystem where ever possible. He himself together with
his family interacts with energy, material and information of
resources in an ecosystem. He can also reverse processes
within an ecosystem. His way of life is a result of
evolutionary process based on hunter gatherer in Band
community tribal people communityTraditional
community.
Currently, a farmer is associated with traditional
community, where his actions toward ecosystem are wisely
taken to exchange information between his community as
social system and his ecosystem. Everything that he
experiences from ecosystem is accumulated to generate
better ecosystem knowledge. This accumulated information
will be passed orally through generations as the wisdoms of
traditional farmers.
Farmers and their communities are very specific as
specific as their ecosystems. They are very wise and
intelligent. The interaction between a farmer’s characters as
a member of the community and western economy as a
world society shows the following indication:
“Redistribution and reciprocity enter the market
exchange through rupiah’s conversion into US dollars.
These features of foreign exchange are consequences of
economy-wide market integration and require explanation
from anthropological context.
Foreign economy is
1
Farmers in the Forest
integrated by market exchange and can be explained by the
wide range of natural resources, labour, goods and services
transaction through purchases and sales at marketdetermined prices, and by the extent to which people in our
national economy depend for livelihood on wage profit,
interest and rental income obtained from market sales.
Natural resources especially from forest or agriculture and
capital goods (land, labour, machines and building of all
varieties), consumed goods (food, automobiles), personal
and impersonal services (dentistry, electricity) are all
purchasable “on the market”. Goods and services which are
ceremonial and religious, or which serve as prestige
indicators, are purchasable in the same way and with the
same money as subsistence goods. In market-integrated
economy, very different items and services are directly
comparable, because all are available at prices stated in the
same currency. The subject of price determination of
product and resources under varying conditions of supply
and demand is an important field of economics because
market exchange is our dominant transactional mode as
western economy. This is an example that our money in
modern society is impersonal and commercial while the
traditional or primitive money has pedigree and personality,
sacred uses, or moral and emotional connotations has been
changed by interaction between Western society and
farmers community for long time in Indonesia history. In
this sense, we have to beware that government policy
should recognize the wise exchange of interactions between
farmers community and ecosystem: maybe the involvement
of over exploited resources indirectly by foreign
determination.”
Livelihood and Way of Life Reposition
In the wonderful way of life, the farmers’ behaviours
are the results of natural evolution. These are related to the
indigenous lowland to upland kingdoms, providing valuable
forest products as taxes and tributes. This process continued
through the period of Dutch ruling. The consequences of
this relationship can be observed in the farmers’ cultural
evolution of political structure. For example, the tribal
community such as the inland people of Sumatra shows that
the headman is often appointed or confirmed by outsiders”
– in the past the representative of Rangkayo Hitam were
well recognized within the Jambi Custom to facilitate
collection of tributes in the form of precious forest goods
(Rachman 1991:314).
The forest people such as the Suku Anak Dalam
(SAD) of Sumatra are now in a state of economic and social
transition, and their habitat is being degraded. However,
this has not brought extensive alterations in their pattern of
nomadism, foraging and shifting cultivation.
It is commonly assumed that inland people such as the
SAD are experiencing some sort of evolutionary trajectory
from full-time hunters and gatherers, to full-time
agriculturalists. Such an assumption is visible in the title of
many tribal people in the world. These are called “farmers”
in transition activities. Even though they are experiencing
changes in their way of life in dealing with their
ecosystems, from indigenous or traditional into modern way
of life that includes the adoption of technology and ideas,
their daily behaviour can still be regarded as traditional.
This suggests that it is unfit with values of new modern
thought. This is what social sciences would refer to as
“cultural lag”.
Cultural lag is one possibility for stating point of
understanding of how to bring the farmer’s culture with
reposition into farmer cultural core itself, recovered and
then its capability for self propelling growth in world
society. The Indonesian government needs strong policy
for “folk economy“ i.e all activities in interaction with the
ecosystem should be based on cultural evolution (Rambo
and Gillogly 1991) and cultural core (Rachman 1991) in
order to protect or to stop practical maladaptive
determinisms toward farmer today. The social scientists
point of view is: “Our theories .are rays of light, which
illuminate a part of the target, leaving the rest in darkness”.
It is obvious that a theory which performs this function
satisfactorily must be well chosen. Furthermore, since it is
a changing world that we are studying, a theory which
illumines the right things at one time may illumine the
wrong thing at another.
Forest and our ancestors’ livelihood as well as their
way of life are full with mysteries. We are currently in need
of some tracer research focussing more on livelihood and
way of life for the farmers’ welfare and development of
Indonesian policies. Even though scientific research on
cultural evolution have been by far the most productive
theoretical force in empirical research on long term sociocultural change, at least in the New World tropics, empirical
studies such as in Indonesia , are still partly carried out.
What do we have to do for Indonesia today? The answer is
government policy have to protect the continuation of long
processed cultural evolution because cultural evolution has
always been concerned primarily with the kind of farreaching, long-term changes on which archaeology, more
than any other discipline, is and must be focused.
Furthermore, compare to any other approaches, cultural
evolution has stimulated and guided the archaeological
research on which our knowledge of long sequences of
change is based upon. On the other hand, government
policies have to provide welfare for the farmers through
their tradition wisdom.
Wheel of Development
“Wheel of development” is a notion that changes the
process of reposition or reformation within the interactions
2
Media Konservasi Vol. 13, No. 3 Desember 2008 : 1 – 3
between farmers in their local community and external
social environment. There are 10 components of the wheel
Need of innovation
Technical
growth
Increased socio-economical
activity/capacity
to show the reformation process (Figure 1).
New forms of social
organization;differentiation
New interest/
the basis of integration
New forms of competitions
(skill,knowledge,competency)
New status symbols,property
(artistic values)
New Roles/Status
Stricter demand for
uniformity within groups;
group-centered
New values/opinions;
frame of reference
Figure 1. Reformation: wheel of development as change process
REFERENCES
Rachman A. M. A. 1991. Social Integration and Energy
Utilization: An Analysis of the Kubu Suku Terasing of
Indonesia and the Temuan Orang Asli of Malaysia, in
Rambo,A.T& Kathleen Gillogly, Profile in Cultural
Evolution (p. 311-331). Michigan: Ann Arbor.
Rambo A.T and K Gillogly (eds). 1991. Profile in Cultural
Evolution Michigan Ann Arbor.
3
FARMERS IN THE FOREST: AN ESSAY ON HUMAN NEEDS AND POSSIBILITY OF
INDONESIA NATURAL WORLD DEVELOPMENT
(Petani di Hutan: Sebuah Esai atas Kebutuhan Manusia dan Kemungkinan Pembangunan
Dunia Alam Indonesia)
ALI M.A. RACHMAN
Division of Plant Diversity Conservation, Department of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecotourism
Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Kampus Darmaga Bogor 16680, Indonesia
Diterima 23 Juni 2008/Disetujui 2 Oktober 2008
ABSTRAK
Rangkaian kata-kata kunci dalam artikel ini dimaksudkan untuk memberi pedoman bahwa ‘petani dalam hutan’ sebagai lambang rakyat kecil,
berpotensi besar dan arif. Mereka merupakan pionir hidup di dunia alami melalui suatu proses evolusi interaksi yang panjang terhadap ekologi dan
ekosistem. Kelompok masyarakat ini menimba ilmu sebagai hasil dari interaksi itu, sehngga tidak boleh diabaikan dalam konservasi dan pembangunan
Indonesia. Kebijakan konservasi dan pembangunan Indonesia hendaklah menggali kembali ilmu pengetahuan masyarakat kecil ini. Hasil galian itu dapat
dipadukan dengan temuan ilmu terkini. Tujuannya adalah mempercepat upaya evolusi guna memperoleh kesejahteraan ekonomi rakyat.
Kata kunci: evolusi, koevolusi, reformasi, ekologi, nilai.
INTRODUCTION
The term “farmers in the forest” in this paper is
basically refers to the natural world evolution where human
being occupies an ecosystem. It is interesting to notice, that
many writers make a note on farmers in the forest. One of
the earliest writing on such matter is Farmer in Thailand by
Pieter Kunstadter of East-West Centre, USA. This piece of
writing concerns about the prospects of human ecology
approach. Firstly, this approach can be used in search of
finding possible means to keep Indonesian forest intact.
This is done in order to understand the “folk economic”
background concept of what Indonesian government should
do and to discover the sustainability and welfare of the
whole national development today.
Secondly, folk economy needs to be clarified because
sometimes it is misinterpreted by macro economic
scientists. It is referred to the traditional way of life of
people who are involved in the process of cultural
evolution. In this view, “farmers in the forest” is indicated
by values of a community as a whole through an evolution.
Thirdly, in my opinion the value of knowledge lies in
the contemplation of that which is wonderful and beautiful.
Such contemplation extends our well-being. There is a
relationship between our capacity to appreciate the value of
the natural world and human well-being.
Cultural Core and Economic Change Problem
A farmer is one who possesses himself and his family
life based on the interaction with ecosystem. As a farmer,
he is involve with his family and he is also a member of a
community as a whole indicated by a specific culture which
is determined by cultural core formed from generation to
generation. This signifies that a farmer is one dynamic
person and interacts with his social system as well as
ecosystem where ever possible. He himself together with
his family interacts with energy, material and information of
resources in an ecosystem. He can also reverse processes
within an ecosystem. His way of life is a result of
evolutionary process based on hunter gatherer in Band
community tribal people communityTraditional
community.
Currently, a farmer is associated with traditional
community, where his actions toward ecosystem are wisely
taken to exchange information between his community as
social system and his ecosystem. Everything that he
experiences from ecosystem is accumulated to generate
better ecosystem knowledge. This accumulated information
will be passed orally through generations as the wisdoms of
traditional farmers.
Farmers and their communities are very specific as
specific as their ecosystems. They are very wise and
intelligent. The interaction between a farmer’s characters as
a member of the community and western economy as a
world society shows the following indication:
“Redistribution and reciprocity enter the market
exchange through rupiah’s conversion into US dollars.
These features of foreign exchange are consequences of
economy-wide market integration and require explanation
from anthropological context.
Foreign economy is
1
Farmers in the Forest
integrated by market exchange and can be explained by the
wide range of natural resources, labour, goods and services
transaction through purchases and sales at marketdetermined prices, and by the extent to which people in our
national economy depend for livelihood on wage profit,
interest and rental income obtained from market sales.
Natural resources especially from forest or agriculture and
capital goods (land, labour, machines and building of all
varieties), consumed goods (food, automobiles), personal
and impersonal services (dentistry, electricity) are all
purchasable “on the market”. Goods and services which are
ceremonial and religious, or which serve as prestige
indicators, are purchasable in the same way and with the
same money as subsistence goods. In market-integrated
economy, very different items and services are directly
comparable, because all are available at prices stated in the
same currency. The subject of price determination of
product and resources under varying conditions of supply
and demand is an important field of economics because
market exchange is our dominant transactional mode as
western economy. This is an example that our money in
modern society is impersonal and commercial while the
traditional or primitive money has pedigree and personality,
sacred uses, or moral and emotional connotations has been
changed by interaction between Western society and
farmers community for long time in Indonesia history. In
this sense, we have to beware that government policy
should recognize the wise exchange of interactions between
farmers community and ecosystem: maybe the involvement
of over exploited resources indirectly by foreign
determination.”
Livelihood and Way of Life Reposition
In the wonderful way of life, the farmers’ behaviours
are the results of natural evolution. These are related to the
indigenous lowland to upland kingdoms, providing valuable
forest products as taxes and tributes. This process continued
through the period of Dutch ruling. The consequences of
this relationship can be observed in the farmers’ cultural
evolution of political structure. For example, the tribal
community such as the inland people of Sumatra shows that
the headman is often appointed or confirmed by outsiders”
– in the past the representative of Rangkayo Hitam were
well recognized within the Jambi Custom to facilitate
collection of tributes in the form of precious forest goods
(Rachman 1991:314).
The forest people such as the Suku Anak Dalam
(SAD) of Sumatra are now in a state of economic and social
transition, and their habitat is being degraded. However,
this has not brought extensive alterations in their pattern of
nomadism, foraging and shifting cultivation.
It is commonly assumed that inland people such as the
SAD are experiencing some sort of evolutionary trajectory
from full-time hunters and gatherers, to full-time
agriculturalists. Such an assumption is visible in the title of
many tribal people in the world. These are called “farmers”
in transition activities. Even though they are experiencing
changes in their way of life in dealing with their
ecosystems, from indigenous or traditional into modern way
of life that includes the adoption of technology and ideas,
their daily behaviour can still be regarded as traditional.
This suggests that it is unfit with values of new modern
thought. This is what social sciences would refer to as
“cultural lag”.
Cultural lag is one possibility for stating point of
understanding of how to bring the farmer’s culture with
reposition into farmer cultural core itself, recovered and
then its capability for self propelling growth in world
society. The Indonesian government needs strong policy
for “folk economy“ i.e all activities in interaction with the
ecosystem should be based on cultural evolution (Rambo
and Gillogly 1991) and cultural core (Rachman 1991) in
order to protect or to stop practical maladaptive
determinisms toward farmer today. The social scientists
point of view is: “Our theories .are rays of light, which
illuminate a part of the target, leaving the rest in darkness”.
It is obvious that a theory which performs this function
satisfactorily must be well chosen. Furthermore, since it is
a changing world that we are studying, a theory which
illumines the right things at one time may illumine the
wrong thing at another.
Forest and our ancestors’ livelihood as well as their
way of life are full with mysteries. We are currently in need
of some tracer research focussing more on livelihood and
way of life for the farmers’ welfare and development of
Indonesian policies. Even though scientific research on
cultural evolution have been by far the most productive
theoretical force in empirical research on long term sociocultural change, at least in the New World tropics, empirical
studies such as in Indonesia , are still partly carried out.
What do we have to do for Indonesia today? The answer is
government policy have to protect the continuation of long
processed cultural evolution because cultural evolution has
always been concerned primarily with the kind of farreaching, long-term changes on which archaeology, more
than any other discipline, is and must be focused.
Furthermore, compare to any other approaches, cultural
evolution has stimulated and guided the archaeological
research on which our knowledge of long sequences of
change is based upon. On the other hand, government
policies have to provide welfare for the farmers through
their tradition wisdom.
Wheel of Development
“Wheel of development” is a notion that changes the
process of reposition or reformation within the interactions
2
Media Konservasi Vol. 13, No. 3 Desember 2008 : 1 – 3
between farmers in their local community and external
social environment. There are 10 components of the wheel
Need of innovation
Technical
growth
Increased socio-economical
activity/capacity
to show the reformation process (Figure 1).
New forms of social
organization;differentiation
New interest/
the basis of integration
New forms of competitions
(skill,knowledge,competency)
New status symbols,property
(artistic values)
New Roles/Status
Stricter demand for
uniformity within groups;
group-centered
New values/opinions;
frame of reference
Figure 1. Reformation: wheel of development as change process
REFERENCES
Rachman A. M. A. 1991. Social Integration and Energy
Utilization: An Analysis of the Kubu Suku Terasing of
Indonesia and the Temuan Orang Asli of Malaysia, in
Rambo,A.T& Kathleen Gillogly, Profile in Cultural
Evolution (p. 311-331). Michigan: Ann Arbor.
Rambo A.T and K Gillogly (eds). 1991. Profile in Cultural
Evolution Michigan Ann Arbor.
3